


A Piece of Sun (or, Three Kisses)

by brilligspoons



Series: but for endless ifs [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Multi, Romance, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-15
Updated: 2012-03-15
Packaged: 2017-11-01 23:44:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/362606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilligspoons/pseuds/brilligspoons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/285159">Of Free Fancy</a> - three kisses leading to a possibility.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Piece of Sun (or, Three Kisses)

_One.  
You tell me our hearts beat in time with each other. I have never believed you._

They're on the phone, him in Malibu and her in Paris or Vienna or Rome, he's lost track of where she's supposed to be on which day, and Pepper says, "Tony, I love you." There's a pause after _you_ , and Tony waits for it. It's inevitable, he thinks, he should have known that this particular pause would show up - the great terrifying breath before _but there's no future for us_ or _but I met someone else_ or _but you're such a fuck-up/so broken/so detached/so unrealistic_. Tony rubs at his face in frustration. He gives Pepper credit, though, because she's lasted this long without The Pause - a decade and change as his assistant, putting up with his nonsense, holding his company together by whatever threads were left her, shouldering it all with a strength Tony could only dream of possessing.

And that is why Tony knows this is going to be the most painful of all pauses he's ever had to endure. He closes his eyes and waits, doesn't dare release the breath he's been holding since _you_.

Pepper huffs out a sigh and says, "Sorry, someone needed a signature. What was I saying?"

"I think you were about to break up with me," Tony says.

"I - wait, what? What are you talking about? No, don't answer that, I don't want to know. I was saying, I love you, and you should really get out of the house. Jarvis tells me you're doing a remarkable Snow White impression."

Tony brings the phone down from his ear and stares at it. Pepper continues to give him a list of things he's apparently supposed to do before she gets home next week (most of which involve him reviewing project proposals for R&D while he's, you know, getting some fresh air, _and that does not mean just opening the windows in your workroom, are you listening to me, Tony?_ ), but he doesn't hear most of it. Something in his peripheral vision is blinking wildly, but he ignores whatever it is and brings the phone up to his mouth and kisses the speaker before positioning it back by his ear.

Pepper has stopped speaking, though he can hear her breathing on the other end. "Did you," she says finally, "just kiss the phone?"

"Hanging up now," Tony replies. "We can't all be dashing around the world in private jets. Some of us have work to do."

" _Tony_ -"

He presses End on the screen and tosses the phone across the room. It bounces off a file cabinet with a bang and clatters to the floor. Tony winces but moves in the opposite direction to deal with the blinking, which turns out to be the communicator Coulson had given each of the Avengers a few months back. He picks it up off the table, runs his teeth across his lower lip as he considers whether he should answer it or not.

_Get some fresh air, she said._

Tony presses a button on the communicator. "Coulson! How's my favorite superhero babysitter doing today?"

***

_Two.  
On a blustery morning such as this, we meet: our hands clutch tight together, our lips the vehicles of our greeting_

It's a Saturday morning when Steve finally manages to work out how to make a simple call from the cell Tony had given him all by himself and asks Pepper to meet him at 7th and 30th. Eleven o'clock doesn't seem all that early, not when he's used to waking up at six sharp every morning, so Steve is more than a little taken aback by her brusque tone of voice when she answers. But she hears him out, regardless, and even though he can practically see her rubbing at the bridge of her nose in annoyance over the phone, she walks into Bagel Maven only thirty five minutes later. Steve is convinced that she must roll out of bed looking - well. He's not sure _amazing_ quite covers it, but it's close enough.

"Thank you for coming," Steve says as he stands to greet her and tries not to wince too much when she fixes a glare on him.

"I enjoy our chats, I really do," Pepper replies. "But do you know what I don't enjoy?"

Steve swallows. "Wading through a sea of tourists this early in the morning?" he tries.

"A major bus line for the northeast region drops off passengers from Boston two blocks down from here," she says. "There were college students with skateboards everywhere." She sits, then crosses one leg over the other and stares at him. "I don't like college students with skateboards, Captain Rogers."

Steve remembers the afternoon spent watching Clint try to do tricks on one with Thor. He doesn't quite understand the appeal, either, to be honest, though it had taken a turn for the amusing once Coulson had gotten wind of it and come down to threaten Clint with a toddler harness if he didn't stop scratching S.H.I.E.L.D. property. Steve sits back in his chair and pushes a white paper bag across the table to her. Pepper glances down at it briefly, then looks back up at him.

"And this is?"

He clears his throat. "I, uh, asked Tony what your favorite kind of bagel was," he says. "He didn't really know, but then Natasha overheard me, and she said it was sesame with butter." Pepper raises an eyebrow. "I mean, I did call you all the way out here on your day off, so I thought I'd better make it worth your while."

Pepper's lips quirk up into half a smile on one side. "Thank you, Captain," she says. "That was very thoughtful of you." 

A warm flush spreads all through Steve's body, and he shifts in his chair as she takes the bagel out of the bag, unwraps it, and begins to eat. He opens his mouth to tell her what's been on his mind, why he asked her down here in the first place, but the speech he's been preparing for the last two months suddenly feels awkward and wrong on his tongue. He snaps his jaw shut with a click of teeth and flushes even more when it draws Pepper's attention back to him.

"You know," Pepper begins. The sound of her voice startles him for some reason. "I'm not at all surprised Agent Romanoff knew my favorite bagel and Tony didn't. He probably stared at you like you had two heads when you asked. He doesn't pay attention to little details about other people like that."

Steve thinks back to the day before, how Tony had hesitantly landed on poppy first, then stopped and wondered out loud that that couldn't be right, and how he'd been about to try again when Natasha had jumped in with the correct answer. He wonders if he should say as much to her, though he's not sure what that would accomplish, coming to Tony's defense when Pepper probably already knows that Tony means well. Instead, he gives himself an internal shake and steels his nerves.

"Of course," she continues, "he tries to get things right, sometimes, when it suits him. I suppose that has to count for something when it comes to Tony." Pepper pulls a napkin from the dispenser on the table and dabs at her mouth.

All of the resolve he's been building up since she'd taken him for coffee and the walk through Central Park and the Museum of Modern Art crumbles suddenly. He looks down at the table and clutches at the edge with both hands.

"You must love him very much," Steve hears himself say. He doesn't dare raise his eyes as the words come out of his mouth, so it comes as a surprise when Pepper's hands come into his line of sight to pry his fingers off the table and squeeze them tightly.

"More than he knows," says Pepper.

Neither of them says anything for a long while, and Steve finds himself unwilling to do anything that will make Pepper stop touching him. _I like you so much,_ he wants to say, the words to his speech that earlier had sounded strange coming back to him in a wave. _I like spending time with you, and I want to spend more time with you. You're amazing and smart and kind and perfect, and though you probably have -_

"Pepper," he says, raising his head to look her in the eye, "I know that you -"

He's cut off by Pepper leaning across the table and pressing her lips against his. The touch is soft and warm, and she lingers patiently while Steve remembers that he's allowed to reciprocate.

***

_Three.  
A breath, then two, an exhalation of **I know you** into our lungs that will cycle through our bones and muscles and nerves and become the strength to breathe more **I know you I know you**._

Pepper opens her eyes and breathes in sharply at the phantom touch of Steve's lips on hers. There's no cafe around her anymore, though, no crowd of tourists shouting food orders at overworked staff. Her tablet chirps at her, and she looks down at the screen to find four more people have emailed her project approval requests since she checked five minutes ago. She sighs and opens one of them but allows herself to glance back up in time to see Tony land a solid blow to Steve's stomach.

 _Captain Rogers,_ she reminds herself. _It's best to keep some distance, Potts. Time to stop daydreaming._

Out of the corner of her eye, however, she can see a slow smile start to spread across Steve's face, and then her breath is gone again.

She thinks she's been waiting for this moment since Tony had ushered her into the S.H.I.E.L.D. building one afternoon months and months ago now, and said, "Pepper, I have someone I want you to meet." She remembers panicking a little, wondering if maybe this person would be another Rumiko Fujikawa and _how the hell am I supposed to handle him leaving me like this -_

But Steve, well. Steve is different.

Pepper shakes herself, pats Happy's arm and nods when he asks her if she's feeling okay. "A chill," she says, _just like the one that went down my spine that day_. "It's colder in here than in the gym at Stark Tower."

Happy hums a bit in agreement, then taps his cell phone and says, "I'm going to step out to make a call and grab some lunch. You'll be fine?"

"Of course. Go on." Pepper gestures to the boxing ring, where Steve and Tony are currently circling each other and grinning like idiots, with a wave of her hand. "I've got these lunatics around at hand and a building full of agents just outside the door when they inevitably forget I'm here." He snorts, and a moment later it's just Pepper, Steve, and Tony. She watches him leave, then turns her gaze to the tablet on her lap and tries to work for a few minutes before giving up the pretense and focusing her attention entirely on the spectacle before her.

This, she notes as she watches them grapple, is the reason she continues to call him _Captain Rogers_ despite Steve repeatedly asking her to use his first name. This is why she hooks her legs behind Tony's knees in bed to knock him onto his back, why she traces the lines of the muscles in his arms with her fingertips after he's fallen asleep. This is what she has of them: the memory of Steve's kiss in the cafe just days ago and his hand on hers, that same hand pressing bruises onto Tony's bicep, and the knowledge that tonight she will fit her fingers into the marks Steve has left behind and wish he could be with them.

She is so caught up in this that the great _slam_ of Tony's body against the floor of the ring makes her jump in her seat. His laughter cuts through the room as Steve apologizes profusely and helps him up, and Pepper allows a smile to cross her face at the sound. She glances down at her tablet for a moment when the email alert pings again, and by the time she looks back up, Steve has gathered Tony close to his chest, both of them laughing now, and is swinging him around in a circle. Pepper stifles a giggle and watches them just close enough to notice Steve turn his face into Tony's neck and plant the smallest of kisses against it.

Pepper's heart jumps into her throat, and she wonders.

**Author's Note:**

> Feeds into [In Between](http://archiveofourown.org/works/287012) and [Bright Mornings](http://archiveofourown.org/works/313264). Title swiped from Pablo Neruda's Clenched Soul because I am terrible at naming things. Thanks to [liveonthesun](http://archiveofourown.org/users/liveonthesun/pseuds/liveonthesun) and [darthjamtart](http://archiveofourown.org/users/darthjamtart/pseuds/darthjamtart) for looking this over for me. <3


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